Research Centers and Services

At the University of Illinois, a vibrant, rigorous research enterprise drives innovation and fosters groundbreaking discoveries. The campus is home to state-of-the art institutes and communities of internationally-recognized scientists working together to solve the world’s most daunting challenges. Our faculty and students collaborate with colleagues from across campus at several centers and laboratories.

Multidisciplinary Research Centers

National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)

The University of Illinois has one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is home to Blue Waters, one of the fastest supercomputers on a university campus. Researchers from Illinois and other institutions tap into NCSA’s computing resources to explore how proteins fold, how galaxies collide, how molecules move through a cell’s wall, and other complex natural and engineered phenomena.

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology

The Institute for Genomic Biology is dedicated to pioneering advances in the life sciences.

More than 130 faculty from 30 departments conduct research at the Institute for Genomic Biology, a 186,000-square-foot facility. Researchers work in three areas: systems biology, cellular and metabolic engineering, and genome technology. They are active in bioenergy and climate change studies, regenerative medicine, drug development, and understanding cancer at the cellular level.

Beckman Institute

The Beckman Instititute’s mission is to foster interdisciplinary work of the highest quality.

The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is devoted to leading-edge research in molecular and electronic nanostructures, integrative imaging, biological intelligence, and human-computer intelligent interaction. The 313,000-square-foot building was made possible by a generous gift from Chemical Engineering alumnus and founder of Beckman Instruments, Arnold Beckman, and his wife Mabel Beckman, with additional funding from the state.

Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory

The Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, or MNTL, is one of the country’s largest and most sophisticated university facilities for conducting photonics, microelectronics, biotechnology, and nanotechnology research. MNTL has cleanrooms, general purpose labs, and a 2,500-square-foot bionanotechnology complex that houses faculty and graduate students from several departments, including Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Bioengineering, Physics, and several others. MNTL is also home to several major research centers, including the National Science Foundation Center for Innovative Instrumentation Technology, the National Institutes for Health’s Midwest Cancer Nanotechnology Training Center, and the NSF Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems.

Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory

The Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy facility on campus that fosters interdisciplinary research at the forefront of materials science. It brings together faculty and students from a variety of departments, such as Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Physics, and Materials Science, in a highly collaborative research environment. MRL supports several large-scale, multi-investigator research programs, including those funded by the Department of Energy, Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. MRL is also home several research facilities, including the Laser and Spectrocopy Facility and Micro/Nanofabrication Facility, which operates a cleanroom.

Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center

With locations across campus, the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center provides genomic and proteomic research services to more than 270 Illinois research programs representing six college and 30 campus units, as well as principal investigators from 69 other universities.

Library

The University of Illinois boasts one of the largest public university libraries in the world, holding more than 13 million volumes and 24 million items and materials in all formats, languages, and subjects. Its online collection of books and articles is also vast.

The university also is home to one of the largest engineering libraries in the country and more than 20 area studies libraries, including the remodeled Chemistry Library.